In recent years the tissue and toweling industry has become very conscious of the consumer's desire for "soft" products. This desire is particularly evident with respect to certain brands of toilet tissue which are made from felted cellulosic fibers where softness is achieved by a mechanical process.
Tissue and toweling, by their nature, must be very absorbent because they are designed to take up water quickly and to hold it. Any product which is used to soften tissue must not interfere with the basic absorbency and preferably should not unduly reduce the tensile strength.
It would be desirable to provide a chemical additive composition which can be added to cellulosic fibers prior to forming them into a sheet and which would enhance the softness of the resultant dried product while increasing or not substantially reducing the absorbency of water and tensile strength.